Just six months ago, it looked like the Republican Party was about to
go on a legislative blitzkrieg, shredding law after law passed by the
Obama administration. ObamaCare would be vaporized and replaced with a
nickel rattling inside an empty Mountain Dew can. Dodd-Frank was sure to
be tossed aside for a transparent giveaway to Wall Street. And
Republicans would pass their regressive tax reform, their perplexing
border-adjustment tax, and so much more. The GOP hadn't held total power
in American politics since 2006, and the party had become much more
conservative in the interim. And instead of George W. Bush, a man who
recognized at least some theoretical limits on free market
fundamentalism, the new Congress would work with a sub-literate tabula rasa
named Donald Trump, a man who could probably be persuaded to inject
himself with experimental medication if an important-seeming person
whispered "do it" in his ear.
But a funny thing happened on the way to libertarian utopia. Indeed, it turns out that the GOP-controlled Congress can't seem to pass any meaningful laws at all. Either they have forgotten how, or the divisions in their own increasingly radicalized caucus are proving too difficult to surmount. Whatever the explanation, thus far these GOP legislators are on track to be the least productive group since at least the Civil War.
Now, okay, technically the Ryan-McConnell 115th Congress is so far actually a bit more active than recent Congresses, if you measure by the 43 laws that President Trump has adorned with his garish signature. Obama was at 40 at this point in 2009. George W. Bush had signed even fewer midway through 2001. But sheer number is not the best way to think about how much is being achieved. As The Washington Post's Philip Bump pointed out, a majority of the bills signed by Trump thus far have been one page long, meaning many are just symbolic or ceremonial.
http://theweek.com/articles/711503/why-gop-congress-most-unproductive-164-years
But a funny thing happened on the way to libertarian utopia. Indeed, it turns out that the GOP-controlled Congress can't seem to pass any meaningful laws at all. Either they have forgotten how, or the divisions in their own increasingly radicalized caucus are proving too difficult to surmount. Whatever the explanation, thus far these GOP legislators are on track to be the least productive group since at least the Civil War.
Now, okay, technically the Ryan-McConnell 115th Congress is so far actually a bit more active than recent Congresses, if you measure by the 43 laws that President Trump has adorned with his garish signature. Obama was at 40 at this point in 2009. George W. Bush had signed even fewer midway through 2001. But sheer number is not the best way to think about how much is being achieved. As The Washington Post's Philip Bump pointed out, a majority of the bills signed by Trump thus far have been one page long, meaning many are just symbolic or ceremonial.
http://theweek.com/articles/711503/why-gop-congress-most-unproductive-164-years
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